Creative Writing: Short Story, Poetry, Travel and Promotional Writing

Overview

A creative writing seminar designed to explore the writing of poems and short stories, as well as writing to promote products and services or to share traveling experiences through diverse practice exercises using the spectrum of the arts.

Who is this for?

This seminar is for aspiring writers and writers who have already published but feel the need to enhance their creative skills in particular genres. Participants can be from any discipline and field.

Why attend?

This seminar will give the participants the opportunity to explore their inner resources and express themselves in many different ways through the prompts and writing exercises given. The participants will learn and practice a specific range of genres and techniques, and this will help them find their own preferences and, eventually, their own voice. Genres such as short story, poetry (haiku, haibun, list poems, free verse and others), travel and promotional writing will be introduced, and the participants will have the opportunity to create their own portfolio at the end of the course to showcase it to publishers and literary magazines in Greece and abroad. Exercises will include, but will not be limited to, writing with the use of prompts, writing focusing on one emotion, the creation of a character, promoting a product or a service, sharing travel imagery and many more. Moreover, participants will receive their instructor’s and their peers’ feedback weekly, having thus the opportunity to improve their ideas and their writing. As far as the travel and the promotional material is concerned, the participants will have the opportunity to create short films with their ideas.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this seminar, participants will be able to:

1. recognize and understand the structure of stories
2. narrate stories in various ways
3. create plausible characters
4. condense or embellish their sentences depending on the genre
5. work with a word limit and/or given prompts and instructions
6. attempt to write poetry
7. apply the techniques taught in their own writing
8. understand writing as a means of expression
9. explore the limits of language
10. realize the benefits of creative expression in their personal life
11. share their travel experiences in a creative way
12. create advertising material, both written and visual
13. create publication-ready material

Certificate of Participation

In order to be awarded the Certificate of Participation from the Deree – School of Graduate and Professional Education, participants will need to fulfill the below criteria:

• Attendance of 8 out of 10 sessions
• Pass the final assessment